This job is posted for Fast Growing Trees via Parallel

Director of Retention

About the company

We're America's #1 online nursery. We pioneered the concept of farm-to-backyard plants & made it possible to grow happier, healthier, and more accessible plants than the garden center or big box store. What sets us apart? We're as close to the farm as it gets. Our plants are sourced from the best growers across the country, cared for by our in-house Plant Experts.

A taste of our scale and reach:

• 2+ million customers and growing
• 10+ million unique visitors a month
• 25,000+ trees shipped a day

About the team

We are looking for people who are passionate about driving sustainable growth and helping millions of customers find the perfect plants for their outdoor spaces.

You will be joining a high-performing growth marketing team of channel specialists, marketing analysts, and creative strategists focused on customer acquisition and retention. We work together to identify opportunities, develop comprehensive growth strategies, design experiments, analyze results, and implement successful campaigns that deliver value to our customers while expanding our market reach.

We consider ourselves growth innovators, with diverse backgrounds from top consumer brands across small and scrappy startups to growth-stage businesses. You can see the evidence of our impact in our industry-leading conversion rates and customer acquisition metrics. We embrace a customer-first mindset and are deeply intrigued by the advancements in data-driven marketing, testing methodologies, and customer insights to help us move faster as a team and to power initiatives helping customers find the right plants for their needs.

About the role

We’re looking for a Director of Retention to own and scale customer lifecycle marketing, loyalty, and retention programs. This role will focus on maximizing customer lifetime value by developing and executing strategies across email, SMS, CRM, subscriptions, loyalty, and post-purchase experiences.

This is a high-impact role for someone who thrives at the intersection of strategy, data, and customer experience. You’ll design programs that surprise and delight our customers, reduce churn, and turn one-time buyers into lifelong fans. If you’re as comfortable building lifecycle models as you are inspiring a team, and if you thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment, this is for you. Just as important as what you know is how you show up: we’re looking for someone who leads with empathy, collaborates with humility, and uplifts those around them.

Responsibilities

• Own the retention strategy across email, SMS, CRM, loyalty programs, subscriptions, and post-purchase experiences
• Lead the ongoing development and optimization of our CRM architecture, ensuring data flows, segmentation, and automation are set up for scalability and precision
• Develop a segmentation framework that balances simplicity with sophistication, enabling personalized experiences at every stage of the customer journey
• Develop and scale customer lifecycle journeys, onboarding flows, and personalized campaigns to drive repeat purchase and engagement
• Inform the broader marketing calendar, ensuring retention content and messaging align with company initiatives, product launches, and seasonal moments
• Own all in-channel execution of lifecycle campaigns, promotions, and creative assets across CRM, email, SMS, and loyalty platforms
• Build and optimize a loyalty program that fosters brand love and increases customer frequency and spend
• Define retention metrics such as repeat purchase rate, churn, LTV, and engagement scores, and build frameworks to track and improve them
• Partner with analytics to develop robust customer segmentation, cohort analyses, and predictive models for churn and LTV
• Collaborate with creative, product, and CX teams to deliver consistent, personalized, high-quality content and experiences
• Establish a disciplined experimentation framework for retention strategies (messaging, cadence, incentives, rewards)
• Lead and mentor a retention team, building a culture of customer obsession, innovation, and data-driven decision making
• Present retention performance, insights, and opportunities regularly to the executive team
• Own the relationship with CRM vendors and platforms, evaluating and implementing new tools to elevate personalization and lifecycle marketing impact

Your Skills

• Self-motivated retention and lifecycle marketing leader with deep e-commerce and DTC experience
• Strong expertise in CRM, loyalty, and customer lifecycle strategy
• Data-driven thinker with experience translating insights into scalable, repeatable retention programs
• Outstanding leader and coach, with strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Deep understanding of lifecycle platforms (ESP, SMS, CDPs, loyalty platforms, GA4, etc.)
• Entrepreneurial mindset with ability to innovate and move quickly in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills, with comfort in experimentation and A/B testing frameworks
• Low-ego, collaborative leadership style that elevates others and thrives in cross-functional environments

What You Should Have

• Proven track record of building and scaling customer retention and lifecycle marketing strategies in high-growth, omni-channel e-commerce businesses
• Experience owning and optimizing multi-million-dollar retention budgets
• Strong analytical background with experience in LTV modeling, segmentation, and customer journey optimization
• Experience with loyalty program design, subscription models, and CRM personalization strategies
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams, inspire innovation, and deliver measurable business impact
• An owner’s mentality—able to navigate ambiguity, adapt quickly, and execute at a high level
• A collaborative, empathetic leadership style that fosters growth and trust
• A passion for building long-term customer relationships—and a love of plants and trees!
• Bachelor’s degree or higher preferred

Not sure if you meet 100% of our qualifications? If you're excited about retention marketing and believe you could excel in this role, we encourage you to apply.

Fast Growing Trees, LLC values diversity and the skills, knowledge and experience that difference brings to our culture. We are an equal opportunity employer and never discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information, political affiliation, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the location where we operate.

Job Type: Full-time

Work Location: Remote